Global Citizen Embassador

The other day, I received a link from a girl I know. Sanny’s a real dare devil type. I was first introduced to her years ago thru a mutual friend, a successful producer with a three-story house in the hills. She jumped off the second story balcony into the pool below. What nerve. I became an instant fan of hers.

Upon opening the link, I came to understand it’s a kind of contest. Top 5 most compelling videos go before the United Nations. A chance to speak to the world leaders. I watched her video and gave her my notes and moved on. She dared me to submit. How could I say no? Would you say no to a dare? I wouldn't.

I write something, then film it. I stray from Sanny’s strict, in your face these-are-the-facts, ma’am, delivery and go for something warmer. I talk about my Mother. And the values she imparted to us as children. I’m proud of what I came up with, and my mother is tickled upon viewing it. But she has some notes. And then..

And then.. her brother signs onto Instant Messaging at the same time she’s giving me her notes. My uncle, the retired command sargent major, who spent considerable time in Afghanistan. She suggests he might have a thing or two to say to the UN that he, for obvious reasons, cannot say himself. I recruit my mother to suggest it to him. She responds, “Check your email in the morning”.

**

My early morning took a turn. A water main broke in the restaurant that was to host a Women In Film event. Instead, I detour to my dear friends, Rebecca and Eric Liebman. Inside a scrumptious visit with their 2 year old twins over cream cheesy bagels, I share with Rebecca the aforementioned dare, along with said contributions from my mother and my James Bond uncle. Rebecca feels it lacks the personal touch I would bring (not having read my original speech). Her husband is a director, writer who will film it for me proper. I race home from the west side, to rewrite it.

What came of our efforts this evening remains to be seen, by you. I hope you like it (I hope I like it! Eric is on his way home now to edit out the dog barking uncontrollably during my best take of the day! Yay, Eric!) Below is a copy of the speak. No matter what happens with it, I want to thank Sanny for her daring. Eric for his skills and expertise. My mother, my uncle, and Rebecca for their guidance. And Joseph, for his patience. Always.

If I do get selected? We’re ALL having a pow wow. Because I'm going to be taking your notes with me. And THAT speech live? It will POP! Believe it!!

We all experience a time when our developing minds absorb what the adults around us are saying. Their words impact us heavily by shaping the ideals that we eventually value. Even more so, actions and the way we live our own lives help to set the standard for the impressionable to emulate.

My Mother’s voice is the voice I listened to all of my life for guidance and wisdom. Her voice was always a kind and thoughtful voice. She was and is a hippie from the 60’s and as a young woman read a book called “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson. It changed her whole life. At an early age, she painted a picture for us children of a world that doesn’t litter. A world that doesn’t fight any more. Because we finally grew to understand that there are more important things to do with our brilliant minds than waste them on conflict, greed and war mongering.

She taught her children the importance of protecting our planet and its limited resources by both words and deeds. Don’t waste, don’t pollute and always recycle. This was not limited to material things but included our minds and work ethic as well. Maintain self-respect. Always be truthful. Never compromise your integrity. Be polite. Love others despite disagreeing with them.

We live in a world where we are totally codependent on each other. What happens in one country could lead to the demise of all countries and the world as we know it. The decisions made in one country must consider their impact on all countries. We can no long allow isolationism and ignorance to exist that places our world at risk. Aggression and wars must be replaced by diplomacy and a universal united front. Arrogant and ruthless leaders that jeopardize world peace must be constrained by the unity of all other countries. All countries that show compassion and good will toward their own people and towards other countries should be recognized and encouraged.

Helen Keller said: As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision. Helen Keller overcame her own personal obstacles, born blind and deaf, to set a selfless example for all of us to follow. That it is never too late to open our eyes and open our hearts, to set new standards for generations to come. Countries that have fallen into poverty and backwardness must be helped to regain prosperity. In our complex world, countries will have differences and we must agree to be able to disagree. Our leaders should be encouraged to show compassion and to compromise responsibly, with the greatest good for all being the deciding factor. Only then can we feel confident we have leaders who can govern with sovereignty, compassion, dignity, and love.

Lead by example.

First/Last Day

My head is still spinning from the experience. Witnessing a company’s fractured infrastructure so blatantly, and on your very first day, can be jarring. I hadn’t prepared myself for this grotesque display of lack of professionalism and the aftermath that followed. Instead of finding the humor somewhere in there, I just feel sad. There’s nothing funny about failure.

The day started with a meeting. Letisha, a very round, black woman and I were walked into the owner’s office. He proceeded to tell us that this job would be year round, and that included Super Bowl Sunday and Christmas. The service they provide is 24 hours, so the shifts would run late night and the morning shift began at 6:00am. I saw my freedom flash before my very eyes. But I pressed on.

Initially, we were being shown the ropes by a young, well-dressed, black woman. Her nerves were frazzled and she admitted to us that she had taught herself most of what she knew about the job. Her training skills were poor, leaving both Letisha and I very confused. But we stayed with it.

From what I was able to gather, the company acts as a liaison between the airlines and the unfortunate people who lose their bags. And as I came to find out, this company makes lots of mistakes. In the short time I was in the office, it was revealed they had lost several pieces already. Once the company’s drivers pick up the luggage, it became the dispatcher’s responsibility to get it to its destination. They have to set the routes, instruct the drivers, deal with hysterical passengers. Apparently, the onus of achieving a system of steady delivery of people’s personal belongings lost by an airline landed square on the shoulders of the dispatcher. The stress that this young woman was experiencing was very apparent. She did not stop moving. She juggled 10 different things at once. For 12 straight hours. All for 9 bucks an hour. I was flabbergasted.

The woman who worked the second shift came in. The others had been talking about her all day. She was a force in this place. Powerful. Take charge. Black. I came to realize I was the only white person all day. This made it difficult on me because no one would look me in the eyes. This new woman was confrontational. She was enormous. Her first question was, what sign are you? I smiled and said, I'm the only sign there is. It's my signature Leo answer to this question. She said, you must be a Gemini. I reacted, Oh no, honey. Gemini’s are impossible to deal with. Turns out, she’s a Gemini. She said, "You don't want to see my other half". Trained in the military. Had her stint as a cop. She reminded me of a friend of mine. I liked her immediately.

She started off strong, with a this-job-is-a-breeze attitude. She told us to forget everything the prior girl has taught us. That she had been there for years and could show us how it’s done. Just then, the boss called. And she asked everyone in the room – a tech guy, his friend, Letisha & I, and two others who, as it turned out, were visiting friends of the Gemini – to leave. She had to speak with him in private. The owner was having an issue with people taking advantage of the time clock. The boss had set up a new device that fingerprints the employees, to stop people from cheating him. And she was not having any part of it.

We cleared the room. Thru a window in the back we could see that the conversation was not going well. She made some very large gestures with her hands and she appeared to be shouting. And then, she was gone. Got in her car and left. For good. Just like that, she quit.

Shuffling our feet inside, no one was really sure what to do. She didn't even say good-bye to her friends, who stood there sheepishly. The manager had left with the owner and that left just the tech guy, who shared with us that the owner is nearly bankrupt. And instead of offering his more valued employees more money, he’s hiring more people, so he doesn’t overwork his existing staff. In turn, he was frustrating those who had been there a while and were expecting a raise in conjunction with the workload they were being given every day. This is a high stress job. To pull your hair out for someone else’s company and then be responsible for every fuck up, all for $50 a shift? I had already sensed the quiet animosity in the place. If you let someone mistreat you and continue to let them mistreat you, chances are good you will grow to resent them. And then one day, blow up in front of a room full of people. I can’t remember the last time I felt that uncomfortable.

Dispatch This

There aren’t too many people I know who are particularly thrilled to drive to the airport. I’m not referring to the excitement one experiences when picking somebody up, someone you love who’s been out of town for an extended period of time and you’ve just been missing heck out of them. I refer to the drive itself. It entails freeway driving and no matter what time you make that trip in Los Angeles, there is always, always traffic. LAX is the International Airport of a very big city, after all, so there’s no wonder there. What is difficult for me to believe is that I convinced myself that taking a job located in close proximity to the airport is any kind of a good idea at all. Especially for $9 an hour. But only because after several dozen resumes out, they were the first to call.

Curiosity got me out of the house. For some reason, when I read “Dispatch”, I thought I’d be fielding 911 calls and helping to save the day. Exciting stuff. Someone’s getting car jacked. There’s been a stabbing, blood everywhere. People in shock can talk all crazy. Good adrenaline junkie material. But the location of my interview gave way to a whole different animal. I would be the voice you hear when calling for your cab. Good grief. How many times had I utilized this service, to take me to that same airport, to fly me clear across the globe of my own volition because another continent was calling me. How I had fallen so far from my dream tree is beyond me.

Too be fair, the recession has hit nearly everyone hard in the guts. And as we continue to gather the wind that was knocked out of the collective us, we must do what’s necessary as individuals to make our ends meet in these difficult times. Rest assured, my priorities are intact. A shitty temp job is no bread line with hungry kids in tow.

The pretty, young manager was very nice and I liked her immediately. A real go-getter. As I sat there staring out the window, half listening to the fascinating details of my responsibilities as a potential future dispatch, out of nowhere flew an enormous plane directly overhead! Because we were so close to the airport, the plane was as low as it could be in the sky without shaving the roof off the place.

After I picked up my jaw from off the floor, I gave my full attention to the Hispanic maiden. All of a sudden, and for whatever reason, I wanted this job. If I can’t afford to take a trip (me - who loves to travel more than anybody) then I can damn well take part in making the experience more enjoyable for others along their journey. It takes so little to be kind and helpful. It’s arrogance that takes real energy.

Strange Little Roark

It’s odd, I can’t very easily recommend the book that hosts my all time favorite character in all of literature because it would be like me asking someone to cross the desert on a three legged camel with a canteen half-filled. Today’s society is consumed with technopportunity, with a myriad of ways to distract the once upon a time avid reader. The Fountainhead is a long and arduous task and I just don’t feel comfortable ranting about how great it is because I feel like I’m bragging that I was able to drag my eyes thru with the whole damn thing and you weren’t so look at how much more I am than you. In fact, please allow me to spare you that full time job and instead share with you the unflappable hero of the book, Howard Roark. I’ll even talk about him like he’s a friend of mine, not some grandiose figure finely propped up on a pedestal by the author and subsequent followers. Roark is too cool for that.

In a world full of people pleasers, Roark sets the bar as high as that proverbial bar will go. Because he himself is enough. A bonafide creator who refuses to take shit from anyone. He embodies self-respect and integrity like no other because he never gives anyone that power over him, no matter how much they criticize his creations and attempt to ostracize him. He won't betray those things that are most important to him. He never compromises his own vision and in turn, never violates his integrity. As a young girl, I came to understand thru Roark’s example that integrity is or isn’t. You have it, or you don’t. Those who follow their own passion and talents with real focus and fervor understand that this need not take away from anyone, but succeed in creating something purely their own.

*

I used to hang out with Jude Law before he hit it big and got swallowed by the system. He was doing a Broadway show at the time, and after one of his performances we met up with friends and went out for drinks. I was my normal, boisterous self, speaking my mind loud and clear for everyone within a four block radius to hear. He put his arm around me as we walked thru Soho and he said, “You know what I like best about you? You’re uninfluentiable”. Was that even a word? I asked him what the hell he meant by that. He said that I would never do anything I didn’t want to do, no matter how much people tried to persuade me. I remember thinking of Roark in that moment, and I gave Jude a grin.

Brave Love

At times, our courage can be tested in real ways. We are called to task and whether or not we have the tenacity to evolve into better versions of ourselves is up to a certain quality in us that transcends mere motivation. It’s a stand and deliver gene that people are born with or not. Follow thru after the birth of an idea is as important as the idea itself, can define it for all time. And because we cannot tell each other how to specifically achieve our personal goals, love itself has to be the one thing that conquers all. But what happens when love dons a yellow belly?

I would like to open a discussion about compromise and sacrifice, because I fell for a man who lives and works 3,000 miles away from me. He hates his indentured servant jobs – he has two. He receives a modest salary, maintains a humble existence that includes care for a daughter he had out of wedlock. Because I have no children, I cannot know that particular brand of struggle.

I have always been a woman full of promise and potential. I strive for great things and have since I was a young girl. Sometimes, I achieve. Mostly, it’s perpetual problem solving. But I never stop throwing large chunks of wood onto my internal fire. There’s opportunity everywhere and seizing it eventually leads to progress. We have to keep evolving, or we stay stagnant and start stinking.

The thought of leaving my beautiful home and giving up the contacts I’ve made thru the years, my prospective company, my lifestyle, the projects I’ve been pushing for years, to move back to where I went to high school triggers the likes of the kind of depression that would surely require medication in a matter of months. Granted, my entire family lives where I grew up, and they are some of my favorite people in the world. But I left my hometown for a reason. Manifest Destiny. I have big things to accomplish that I cannot do from the safety of my mother’s bosom. It’s hard enough to accomplish. You need that healthy dose of fear to keep you on your toes.

What makes some people venture out into the world, deeming where they once ate lunch off a plastic tray just not enough? And if you've found your true love in your high school sweetheart, love being the most important thing there is, do all those big ideas for yourself go out the window?

*

"They can conquer who believe they can. He has not learned the first lesson in life who does not every day surmount a fear."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sentence

I didn’t care to set my alarm because I simply didn’t care. The laissez-faire that I generally practiced reflected my own self-appointed disinterest over matters that didn’t concern me. A true narcissist knows if there is nothing to be gained or got, the effort and energy spent is wasted… unless of course there’s something unexpected in the cards. Those kinds of surprises are worth getting up for.

Shuffling my feet, head down, I made my way thru the maze that was the parking garage. The attendant looked my way, forcing a smile out of me – hey, she was somebody’s Mama. The early white light of the morning blinded me and as I navigated thru the crowd of people inhabiting the sidewalk, my instincts told me to follow the squishy woman with bottled water and a romance novel at the ready. She was a picture perfect juror. As we walked in step, I glanced at her puffy face and asked her if she had been at it long.

“Oh, be prepared to sit. You’re going to be here all day”. The news made me cringe. Sacrifice one day of my life on earth for what? When they finally got to my number and asked me their questions, I would tell them what a harsh critic I am, family & friends comprised of cops & lawyers, that I have an adversity towards stupid people – I had it all mapped out. They may have got me down here today, but they weren’t about to own me.

She continued to whisper little secrets in my ear, the ins and outs of jury duty. It was obvious she hadn’t been out of the house in some time, and she openly expressed her delight in being a part of the legal system because of how much she just loves all those cop shows.

Once inside, she instructed me to move swiftly when it came time to exit the elevator, because the group of blonde skirts who had just pushed passed us would steal all the magazines in the holding room. And since I hadn’t brought anything to read, I felt a fondness for this soft woman. It almost made me feel as if I could do this, too. That I, too, could do my part to help give back to the city I live in, this country I have always been proud to call home, minus one president. And just as I was about to crack a smile and a sigh, the elevator flew passed my floor. Apparently, my destination differed from where these sheep were going and I jumped out as quickly as possible at the next available stop. After asking the around, I discovered not only was I on the wrong floor, but in the entirely wrong building. My building was blocks away, and the heat outside was already approaching unbearable.

*

“You’re too late,” the woman behind the glass said, looking down her nose at me. As she went back to her typing, she called over her shoulder, “Come back Monday, 7:30”. My head shook no. If 7:30 was too early for me this morning, it sure as hell would be too early for me any other morning. I don’t wake up early for anything except international flights out of here.

“I’ll be out of town,” I responded reflexively. She gave me an extension with the cluck of her tongue to match her disapproving eyes. Another sentence to loom over my head like a cough you keep hoping will go away on it’s own but know at some point you’ll have to get it checked out. This was worse because, unlike smoking a carton of cigarettes to trigger the pending emphysema, I had always minded my own business and did nothing to deserve this.

I nearly sprinted away from judicial purgatory, fought the urge to run thru the halls like a free man. My stride was long and hard, as I passed court room doors housing plaintiffs and defendants pleading their cases, arms in slings and weary court appointed representatives with bad suits and piles of papers tucked precariously under both arms. There was only one guy waiting for the elevator, so no pushing and shoving this time and I was full of relief.

Then I saw him. I really looked at him, the one guy waiting for the elevator alongside me. We were alone in this hallway and he was jumping up and down. He was running in circles. He was high-fiving the wall. I side-stepped to get a better look at his face and he turned into me. The boy was aglow from within. “They dropped my life sentence!”

“What?”

“They just dropped my life sentence. Double murder and I didn’t do it. I’ve been inside for 20 months. You’d be surprised how many people they have in there who didn’t do it.”

My mouth dropped. “You have angels, my friend.”

“My girlfriend.”

“You better go give her some love.”

“She died last year. I’m going to the cemetery right now,” he pulls out a photo in his wallet of himself next to a gorgeous, radiant woman. She’s standing behind him, hands folded on his left shoulder. Her look of gentle confidence gives me a start. I instruct myself not to cry. I return this boy’s bright smile with one of my own. The elevator dings and we join the masses inside…